Visualizing antibody affinity maturation in germinal centers

Diversity reigns in antibody responses During the course of an immune response, B cells specific for an invading pathogen divide. The antibodies they produce increase in affinity via somatic mutation in specialized lymph node structures called germinal centers. Tas et al. used multiphoton microscopy and sequencing to determine how different B cell clones compete with one another within mouse germinal centers. Multiple B cell clones can seed individual germinal centers, and germinal centers lose diversity at disparate rates. Such heterogeneity suggests that manipulating minor clonal populations to gain an advantage during vaccination may one day be possible. Science , this issue p. 1048